Howard Gardner

The

Disciplined Mind-

The

Religion/ Social Studies ( November)

Synthesizing MindMath / Science ( February)

English / Fine Arts/ Foreign Language ( January)

The Creating Mind

The

Respectful mindEthical Mind-

The

Guidance and Library (March)

Health and P.E./Technology/Family and Consumer Sciences (April)

Appreciate the difference between subject matter, and discipline. Subject matter is information/facts or stuff. Disciplines are, on the other hand, distinctive ways of thinking. A totally different thing. For example, the discipline of history is figuring out what happened in the past, putting you into the minds of people from the past and understanding their experiences and why they did what they did. ( Critical Thinking) 1. Identify truly important concepts within the discipline. 2. Approach the topic in a variety of ways. 3. Create assessments of learning.

Evidence of learning must reveal whether the student can actually make use of the classroom material outside the school. ( Application)

Darwin is an example of a synthesizing mind. He spent years collecting copious amounts of information and then spent twenty years working on the ideas he developed as a result of this amassing of information. In synthesizing, he took a huge amount of information and then evaluated it and reduced it to a number of powerful laws about variation, natural selection, survival and reproduction. 1. It is predicted that in the future, the synthesizing mind will be the most valuable mind because of the huge amount of information that is available instantly. The priority will be knowing what to pay attention to and what to ignore, what information to hold on to and (for teachers) how to convey the synthesis of information to other people.

2. Synthesizing is not new but more and more of our time as teachers needs to be about developing ways to help children to synthesize effectively. 3. Start with the Internet. Teaching students how to navigate through internet resources is an essential skill for a 21st century student.

This is all about entering into the realm of the new asking new questions, going beyond the known, thinking outside the box. However, you cant think outside the box if you dont have a box to begin with. The box is the disciplined mind and the syntheses that have already been carried out.

1. Creativity is as much about personality and temperament as it is about being cognitive. Good creators try and try again, theyre positive, theyre willing to make a fool of themselves, theyre willing to venture into the unknown. Its not a personality trait that you are born with; its more about the personality that is developed as a result of the environment that you are in. Teachers need to create a classroom environment that fosters a students creativity. The student needs to feel safe to take risks and think outside the box.

 These

three minds for the future can be segmented into depth (disciplined mind), breadth (synthesizing mind) and stretch (creating mind).

Theres

a lot more to learning and to life than just passing tests and the most important thing we can do in school is to get kids to fall in love with learning.- Howard Gardner

1. We dont all look or think the same. Now consider how we are going to tolerate and get along with others. To do that we have to be able to understand and relate to others. 2. The respectful mind starts from birth and is based on the examples set by others and how people treat each other. Teachers need to create a classroom environment in which every child feels valued and respected. Its not easy to achieve but its very important.

1. Ethics involves a pathway to think abstractly about various roles you should fulfill as a worker and as a citizen. Its a higher level of abstraction than a respectful mind. Were citizens of an increasingly connected planet. What is the ethical way to fulfill our role? If you want to be an ethical person you have to act ethically. Its easy to be ethical where you go with your own self-interests. Its much more challenging in a situation that doesnt benefit you primarily but instead benefits others. Think of your role as a teacher in this context.

2. Students have a tendency to compromise their ethics because they make sense of the world from the examples they see. Teachers can be role models for developing the ethical mind. They can set examples and have discussions on ethics.

My hypothesis is that amongst privileged society the challenge is ethics; amongst deprived society the challenge is excellence, and between the two extremes the challenge is engagement. School is boring thats an engagement issue This finding of the ethical mind has changed my life and those I work with. We respect people who behave ethically.- Howard Gardner

1. Use examples from history or current events 2. Awareness of the five minds. 3. Modeling and explicating positive examples (as a teacher you need to explain ethics its not transparent). Research states that in the United States, other than parents, the most trusted people are teachers. 4. Calling attention to negative examples, with appropriate consequences. 5. Putting the five minds together.